the whole of an eminent person's life, beyond, and other than, and apart
from, that which the mere general biographer would afford the means of
explaining. There is an influence of a great man derived from things
indescribable, almost, or incapable of enumeration, or singly
insufficient to account for it, but through which his spirit transpires,
and his individuality goes forth on the contemporary generation. And
thus, I should say, one grand tendency of his life and character was to
elevate the whole tone of the public mind. He did this, indeed, not
merely by example. He did it by dealing, as he thought, truly and in
manly fashion with that public mind. He evinced his love of the people
not so much by honeyed phrases as by good counsels and useful service,
_vera pro gratis_. He showed how he appreciated them by submitting sound
arguments to their understandings, and right motives to their free will.
He came before them, less with flattery than with instruction; less with
a vocabulary larded with the words humanity and philanthropy, and
progress and brotherhood, than with a scheme of politics, an
educational, social and governmental system, which would have made them
prosperous, happy and great.--_On the Death of Daniel Webster:_
RUFUS CHOATE.


_A Study of Oratorical Style_

8. And yet this small people--so obscure and outcast in condition--so
slender in numbers and in means--so entirely unknown to the proud and
great--so absolutely without name in contemporary records--whose
departure from the Old World took little more than the breath of their
bodies--are now illustrious beyond the lot of men; and the Mayflower is
immortal beyond the Grecian Argo or the stately ship of any victorious
admiral. Tho this was little foreseen in their day, it is plain now how